English words ending in -man
are given in three columns. All have primary stress on the first
syllable, but those in the first two columns have weak, unstressed
final syllables (in my speech) with an obscure vowel, a schwa.
Those in the second column are distinguished by having an s
preceding the -man element. The plural forms of the words
in both columns, although spelled with -men, also have
an obscure vowel, which for some speakers may be a barred-i
in contrast to the schwa of the singular forms, while for other
speakers the singular and plural forms may not be distinguished
at all in normal rapid speech. (Decreolized standard English
in Hawai'i tends to give at least tertiary stress to both -man
and -men and treat the words in the first two columns like
those in the third.)

The words in the third column have
primary stress on the first syllable, and tertiary on the second
(pronounced with a low front lax vowel). The plurals are distinguished
by a mid front lax vowel in the second syllable, also with tertiary
stress.

Thus, a case can be made for the words
in the first two columns being formed according to a word formation
rule that adds the suffix -man, and for those in the third
column being compounds. The identity of the -s in the second column
is problematic; a possible plural base is given in italics for
a few of the words. Most of the bases in the first two columns
are nouns, as are the first elements in the compounds of the third
column. Where another part of speech is involved, it is indicated
following the word.